1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a closed structure and a method for fabricating the closed structure, and more particularly to a closed fluidic structure, such as a closed fluidic channel, and a method of fabricating a closed fluidic structure in a substrate using vapor deposition techniques.
2. Description of Related Art
Nano-structures, such as nano-fluidic devices and nano-electro-mechanical systems (NEMs) (i.e., fluidic devices or electro-mechanical devices having cross-sectional dimensions fabricated at the nanometer scale), are an emerging technological field having significant commercial potential for the future. Nano-structures, including nano-fluidic devices having arrays of nano-scale channels, are contemplated for use in molecular/biological sensors, biological separations and catalysis, single cell analysis, single molecule manipulation, DNA stretching, nano-scale fluidic transport, and high throughput macro-molecular analysis.
As an example, an array of nano-scale channels may facilitate the manipulation and analysis of bio-molecules, including DNA (having a persistence length of approximately 50 nm), proteins, etc. These arrays of nano-scale channels may possess channels of varying sizes, wherein each size, e.g., the cross-sectional dimensions of the channel, is selected for the passage of a specific molecular cross-section. Therefore, a pre-determined arrangement of the array of channels of varying size can permit the filtering of bio-molecules of different size.
In yet another example, nano-fluidic devices are contemplated for conductive-convective cooling of micro- and/or nano-electronic devices. Due to the continuing reduction in electronic structure size and the increasing number density of devices on substrate real estate, the density of dissipated power increases, while the need to remove this heat becomes increasingly important in order to preserve the operating characteristics of the electronic device.